Sunday, September 04, 2011

Symbols mania

Symbols are very interesting indeed ,combination of many shapes in order to give that final symbol we are used to see ..

From along time ago I found a website , that offers a book of symbols and their meanings,

heart symbol for example is as old as , , , , , and . Its meaning for the people living in Europe before the last Ice Age of course is not known, but since these Cro-Magnons were hunters one can be reasonably sure it meant that life sustaining organ pumping around the blood of the organism every second of its lifetime.

Graphically is related to , the sign for fire and for flight in the Middle Ages, and one of the most common signs in Western ideography. It is also related to , Aries, its graphic counterpart among the open sign structures, and to , for union or togetherness.

It is probable that began as , a pictorial sign for the heart of a man or an animal. Nowadays, at least in Sweden, is associated with the behind and defecation, as it is an old sign for a toilet for both sexes.The heart does not appear in any established sign system. It is an anarchistic graph that has yet to find a place in any conventional sign system. Nontheless it is well known throughout the Western world as a sign for togetherness or love.One sign that is often associated physically with is , the arrow, a symbol for directed energy, flow, penetration. See inGroup 53.The heart sign appears as a symbol in all the major cultural spheres. In the Christian trilogy of faith, hope and charity stands for charityas the anchor cross stands for hope. It also appears with a religious or positive meaning among Aztecs, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Celts, and Taoists.In ancient Greece the heart sign (together with the flower) was related to , the lyre, the attribute of Eros, the god of sexual love, around 600-400 B.C. Later, the attribute of Greek Eros, his Roman counterpart Amor, and even Cupid (Latin = desire) was changed to the bow and arrow. On a Greek amphora from around 500 B.C. one can see used as leaves of a wreath placed on the head of Dionysos, the god of wine and feasting.The heart sign is also used in Africa: see and .In early heraldry it is not uncommon. It is found, for example, on the coat of arms of Magnus Ladulås from the thirteenth century, a Swedish king known for his work to ensure the safety and sanctity of women, and to put an end to the habit of knights and soldiers to take what they wanted from the peasants.

And the peace symbol :

This is the anti-nuclear emblem or the peace sign. It can be seen as composed of a Tyr rune, , lengthened upward, or by the rune , turned upside down. In Germany and Austria it is often called the Todesrune, the rune of death, or an inverted life rune.

According to some sources was conceived by placing the signs N and D (for Nuclear Disarmament) from the international marine flag signalling system on top of each other, and circumscribing the combination with a circle. Some state that was invented by Lord Bertrand Russell. S. T. Achen, however, claims that the symbol was designed by J. Holtom at the request of Russell. In any case it was initially used as a rallying sign at the 1958 demonstration against Aldermaston (a British research center for the development of nuclear weapons).The power of this symbol is emphasized by the fact that the South African government, during the 1970s, seriously considered forbidding it. They found it "anti-Christian" and "pro-Communist." Achen, the late Danish semiotician, wrote that , ironically, was forbidden at times in some of the communist countries.